8-12NOV2004 Portugal, even the Algarve is not nearly as touristed as
Southern Spain. The roads are great for motorcycling and the food is good.
Ordering food is a bit of a challenge. My Spanish is good enough for menus
but my Portuguese is non-existent. So, in some cases I just pointed and
took whatever came to the table.
Costs were about the same as Spain. The weather continued to get cooler
as I headed north up the coast. One night near Lisbon, unable to find a
hostal, I spent my last night in the tent. It was pretty chilly and not
very comfortable. My ¨faithful¨ Thermarest air mattress has developed an
interesting bulge. If I want to be comfortable, I have to sleep on the
bulge to force air into the rest of the mattress. By morning, I feel like
a contortionist. Camping out in Europe really helped my budget but I´ll
be happy to sleep in a regular bed from now on.
I must be running out of tourist steam because I only took a few pictures.
The rural scenes in Portugal are beautiful and the whitewashed hill towns are
beautiful. I meant to take a picture of a cork tree but never found the
right one. After only four days I was back in Spain and on the final leg
of my trip.